みなさん、こんにちは！帰国子女、海外経験者コミュニティーのBeyond Borderです！

『競争力を持った国際日本人になる！』、『日本の良さを再発見し、世界中に広めよう！』をスローガンに始まった、現在唯一の英文記事<Introducing Japan>第5弾！

Differences in Students’ Attitudes and Lecture Resources

Perhaps it is general in Asian countries that students are quite passive in lessons.

Same situation in my lectures, professors take part for speaking and explaining the contents for most of the lessons.

Students usually just listen to what the professors said and take some notes for references.

Sometimes there will be students asking the professors about the content in class, but it is not a common case.

Since my faculty connected with a number of college overseas, there are some exchange students come to have lessons with us every year.

While I was taking lectures with students who came from non-Asian countries, I found that they are usually more willing to ask directly whenever they feel confused about the courses.

They are also more willing to speak out. They would like to discuss with the professor about points that they disagree with, or just to share their own point of views which are different from the professor one.

However, I found that lectures and seminars in Japanese universities always require students to buy textbooks for class.

In my hometown Hong Kong, universities seldom use textbooks. Instead, lecture notes or PowerPoint slides are provided for students.

I was shocked at first when I found that I have to spend quite a lot of money for buying textbook here for my lectures.

As most of the lectures will be finished within one single semester, it is really a waste in my opinion.

From what I have experienced and what I have heard from my friends and classmates, contents of the books are profuse that the professors usually cannot finish all of them in class.

I believe that teachers should provide handouts for the lectures, and books should only listed as references that students can borrow from the library if they would like to check for additional information.